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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25969297">A Deal With The Devil</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/NapoleonBonerfart/pseuds/NapoleonBonerfart'>NapoleonBonerfart</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Queen Fakey of Made Up Town [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Parahumans Series - Wildbow</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 09:55:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,889</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25969297</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/NapoleonBonerfart/pseuds/NapoleonBonerfart</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After the devastation of Leviathan and the Slaughterhouse Nine, Danny Hebert would do anything to keep his estranged daughter safe.  Even if it means making a Faustian Pact with the warlord of the boardwalk, Skitter.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Queen Fakey of Made Up Town [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2093361</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>87</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Deal With The Devil</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Danny Hebert looked over at the brand new alarm clock that read 6:28 AM.  Not for the first time, he had wished that things had gone differently between him and Taylor; that his temper hadn't gotten the better of him that night.  So much had happened since then, Leviathan had attacked the bay not long after that night, and the slaughterhouse nine had come in right afterwards.  Brockton Bay had been a city on the decline before that cavalcade of horrors.  Now though, now it was looking like the city was a write-off, with Mayor Christner planning to visit Washington to testify as such to Congress.  As much as it painted Danny to leave it behind, the city he spent his adult life in, where he had the most memories with Annette, where he raised Taylor, where he gave his adult years towards the Sisyphean task of reopen the ferry and clear the boat graveyard so that the port could start working again.  Leave it behind and start fresh somewhere else with Taylor.</p><p>The bills had been piling up for a while.  It wasn't one major expense that was the problem but the hundred of small unexpected expenses that had piled up, a death by a thousand papercuts.  If the city was condemned, then the compensation package that he'd get would more than cover the remainder of the mortgage on the house, and would be enough to serve as a serious down payment on a new home somewhere else.</p><p>Danny's circling thoughts were interrupted by the sound of back door opening and some people walking inside.  Danny quickly threw on some clothes and made his way downstairs.</p><p>"Taylor?"  He asked as he made his way down the stairs.  "Is that you?"</p><p>"Yeah it's me Dad."  She replied.</p><p>As Danny walked into the kitchen, he noticed two things right away.  One was that there was a girl here with Taylor that he hadn't met before, and the other thing was that Taylor's arm was in a sling.</p><p>"What happened to your arm?"  He asked.</p><p>"Got caught in Bonesaw's misama, and then Flechette tagged me in the shoulder."  Said Taylor.</p><p>"Jesus Taylor!"  Said Danny.  That miasma had been one of the more recent horrors inflicted on the bay, making it impossible to recognize people's faces.  He'd almost come to blows with Kurt and Lacey, thinking they were looters on the docks.  Taylor it seemed had gotten even more unlucky and been confused with a villain by that Ward.</p><p>"Anyway Mr. Hebert, I don't think we've met.  I'm Charlotte."  Said the other girl, speaking up for the first time.</p><p>"Are you one of Taylor's friends?"  He asked.</p><p>"Yeah."  She replied, "We're both working to help clean up the boardwalk."</p><p>Danny couldn't help but wince at that.  The Boardwalk was supposedly under the control of Skitter, a supervillain who could charitably be described as 'violently mercurial.'  And from what Taylor's friend had described, they were working right in the middle of Skitter's territory.</p><p>"Are you sure that's safe?"  He asked.  "I mean the Boardwalk, that's Skitter's territory."</p><p>"I mean..."  Said Charlotte.  "I've only seen her in costume a handful of times, but I do get the sense that she really does care about the people in her territory."</p><p>Truth be told, that really didn't reassure Danny.  Even if Skitter was nice enough to 'her people,' the villain's reputation for brutality meant that Taylor was just a hairsbreadth away from being on the wrong end of Skitter's mood swings.</p><p>"Taylor... Tell me the truth."  Asked Danny.  "Are you working for Skitter?"</p><p>"Well... I... I mean..."  Taylor started.  Struggling to find the words.  "I guess I sort of am, in a sense."  She admitted.</p><p>The words hit Danny like a ton of bricks.  He had suspected that Taylor had gotten caught up in something.  She had started skipping school, staying out late for no reason, avoiding him even more than normal.  It had come to a head a month ago when he had confronted Taylor in this very kitchen, only for her to leave home for good.  As soon as Taylor had walked out that door, he'd known he had let his temper get the better of him, and all he wad wanted in that moment was to take it all back and go back to the polite fiction that the two of them had been living before then.  But to hear it out of his own daughter's mouth, that she had gotten caught up in one of the gangs, and one of the more violent ones at that, that was what shook Danny.</p><p>"But why?"  He asked.  "Why work for her?"</p><p>"Because I wanted to help people."  She admitted.  "After Leviathan, there were so many people hurting and the PRT and the city weren't doing anything about it.  The Merchants and the Chosen were stealing the relief supplies and people were getting desperate and looting.  Skitter was the only one to actually do something about it."</p><p>She was right.  It pained him to admit it, and it went against every fiber of his being to admit it, but Taylor had a point.  The city and the relief agencies had largely given up and had only made a token effort to help the city rebuild after Leviathan had struck.  It was the villains of the city that had kept it running so that they'd stiff have a city to rule over.</p><p>"I want to meet her."  He said.</p><p>"What?"  Asked Taylor.  "You want to meet Skitter?"</p><p>"I want to look Skitter in the eye and make sure she's got my daughter's best interests in mind."  He said.</p><p>Charlotte handed him a slip of paper with an address written on it.  "Here, Mr. Hebert.  Meet us at this building on the boardwalk tomorrow morning."</p>
<hr/><p>Danny stood outside the three story building on the boardwalk, feeling conspicuously out of place among the reconstructed buildings and the spraypainted scarab beetles that were scattered around the various surfaces.</p><p>As Danny looked around the boardwalk, he saw construction crews hard at work replacing windows, clearing the roads of debris, laying down new wood to rebuild the Boardwalk.  It wasn't up to how the boardwalk looked before Leviathan came or even how it looked in the heyday of Brockton Bay, but he could see that it was getting there.</p><p>It made a start contrast to the rest of the city that was still struggling to rebuild after the double whammy of Leviathan and Shatterbird.</p><p>"Danny?"  Came an unfamiliar voice.  Danny turned around and saw a red-haired teenage girl with her hair in dreadlocks.  "Hi I'm Sierra."  She introduced herself.  "You said you wanted to meet Skitter.  Follow me please."</p><p>As he followed her away from the boardwalk and onto the sand, he began to have second thoughts about this.  What villain would be willing to meet with the father of her henchmen.  For all he knew he was being led to a secluded space so that Skitter's bugs would devour him alive for daring to question her authority.  As the two continued to walk along the sand, he saw the storm drain pipe that she was leading him towards.  Hadn't he bumped into Taylor here?  Had she already been in Skitter's clutches even then?</p><p>As the two walked through the storm drain, with conveniently placed pieces of debris to block off the flow.  She finally led him to staircase.</p><p>"These stairs lead to the second story of the building, Skitter is waiting for you there."  She explained.</p><p>Danny took a deep breath and began ascending the stairs, bracing himself for meeting one of the single most dangerous people in Brockton Bay, and his daughter's employer.</p><p>He knocked on the door and waited for a response.  His heart pounding in his chest.  He moved his arm to knock again and the door seemed to swing open on its own.</p><p>The room was almost exactly what he had thought a supervillain lair would look like.  Shelves of terrariums lined the walls, with tinted fluorescent lights shining through them, casting mottled shadows all across the room.   In the corner of the room was an oversized leather chair, something no doubt meant to intimidate anybody walking into the room.  And there, almost perfectly blending into the darkness of the chair was Skitter herself.  The only indication that Danny had that she was even there were the dark grey armor panels that covered her costume and the golden eyes of her mask.</p><p>"S-Skitter."  He said, slightly stuttering as he remembered that the young woman in front of him was the one who was rumored to have carved Lung's eyes out.  "I wanted to ask you about my my daughter.  Taylor."</p><p>"What about her?"  Came a cacophonous voice from all around him.  It hadn't been the girl in the costume in front of him speaking, but instead the bugs all around them in the room who seemed to speak at once.</p><p>"Please."  He pleaded.  "I don't want her mixed up in all of this.  I know that she wanted to help and you gave her an opportunity to do so when nobody else was doing anything, but please, she's all I have left."</p><p>As Danny looked into those golden lenses, he couldn't help but wonder what the supervillain was thinking.  Had he just signed his own daughters death warrant by doing this.  Before he could continue that train of thought any further, the insects in the room seemed to buzz more words.</p><p>"And what would you give me in exchange?"  The bugs in the room asked.</p><p>"I'll work for you."  He said.  "Take her place in your organization."</p><p>"Are you certain that you would be willing to work for a villain?"  She asked through the swarm.  "'Skitter is an unpredictable young woman tending towards acts of apparent kindness to those she deems her subjects and bursts of sudden and extreme violence towards those she sees as her enemies.'  are these not your words about me?"</p><p>"Yes."  Said Danny.  "Those were my words.  If it will keep my daughter safe, even in spite of that, I will work for you"</p><p>"I see."  Said the swarm.  "In that case, the price I require from you is far simpler.  Your house was foreclosed upon by the bank.  They would have sold it for pennies on the dollar and left you and your daughter homeless.  Fortunately for you, I have purchased it from the bank instead.  All I ask of you is that you stay there and keep the house as your home."</p><p>"That's it?" Asked Danny.  "That's all I need to do?"</p><p>"I am not some petty mercurial tyrant mister Hebert."  Said Skitter.  "I take no pleasure in the misfortune of others, and I resort to violence only when it is necessary.   So yes, that is all that I will require of you."</p><p>As Danny made his way out of the lair, all Danny could think of what the quote from Goethe's Faust that Annette used to read to Taylor as a bedtime story.  "And so I sit, poor silly man.  No wiser now than when I began."  He had saved Taylor from the gangs and even saved his home.  And yet, he couldn't help but feel like he had made a deal with the devil to do so.</p>
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